Friday, September 30, 2005

Just before the election, Don Brash made some stunningly ignorant comments on the wero, asking why important visitors to New Zealand were greeted by "a Maori New Zealander jumping around half naked". So I wonder what he thought of this...

Unlike Brash and other Nats stuck in the 1950s, the Royal Family have never had a problem with Maori protocol having been adopted as the customary way of greeting important visitors to our country. Are they "politically correct", too?

Actually, I'm sick to death of that cliche, it's just lazy thinking. Be specific about what you don't like or STFU. I'm also sick to death of Murray McCully's references to The Sisterhood. It's the intellectual equivalent of walk shorts and long socks. Can anyone drag him and his dinosaur mates into the 21st Century? Now there's a challenge.
Posted by
Anonymous
:
9/30/2005 11:22:00 PM

Get ready to die of your sickness then my friend, for you'll hear much more of it. One of the problems with anonymous intellectually-deficient pygmies is that they sicken unto death with their cliches like "Nats stuck in the 1950s" and "dinosaurs". The Royal Family have the Maori protocol thrust upon them, whether they give a rat's bottom for it or not. My question was directed at a different matter, which was does Dr. Brash not have the right to dislike it, and to say so, or must he keep his mouth shut because whatever it is that anonymous would prefer another cliche for, requires him to? Personally, I disagree with Dr. Brash's view, but I respect his right to have it, which appears to be more than can be said about you, my anoymous friend.

Applying your own directive to be specific or do something else, what specifically is it about the Hon. Murray McCully's references to "The Sisterhood" that you don't like, apart from its evocation of some warped paradigm of sock and shorts that burdens your existence?
Posted by
yingyangyo
:
10/01/2005 04:37:00 AM

Hey, why don't we label the Nats leadership "the Gerontocracy?" Or the "Testosterone Poisoning Fatalities?" Or the "Yokelocracy?"

"Sisterhood." How precious. And with attitudes like that, no wonder women voted against the Nats.

It’s irrelevant whether Brash personally likes Maori protocol or not – he’s a politician, he dissed it for political reasons. The Nats policy on Maori IS stuck in the 1950s in that it appears unaware of the 1961 Hunn Report which advocated Maori-specific programmes to reduce inequalities.

Many older Maori remember that report and are disgusted by the Nats’ ignorance of that and other historical efforts to improve the lives of Maori through special programmes. A recent Country Calendar programme on Maori Farmer of the Year 2005 was a great example of a successful result.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3390807a3600,00.html

Murray McCully’s Sisterhood epithet shows that he has difficulty accepting the increased presence of women in public life. It reflects a prejudice rather than reality. But he's not the only one. I've seen Colin James refer in a column to the "gynocracy" and place women among "minority groups". Clearly, there's a number of 50+ guys out there who were unsettled when the women's movement came along and challenged their sense of entitlement. I guess it's part of being a conservative.

To the other anonymous's suggestions, I'd like to add The Brudderhood, or the Blokeocracy.
Posted by
Anonymous
:
10/01/2005 02:10:00 PM

Political dissing in an election campaign? Naughty, naughty right wing person, how could you stoop so low? Interesting how you get all huffy over McCully's choice of epithet, yet throw around your own. Ease up on the stressing laddies, or you'll never make it to maturity.
Posted by
yingyangyo
:
10/02/2005 06:43:00 AM

Yingyangyo: The point of the original post was to compare Brash’s negative statements on Maori welcoming ceremonies with Prince Andrew’s active participation in one. You went off on a tangent about Brash’s right not to like it. I said that his personal views are not the point: he’s a politician, his statements were political. And now he has taken the political consequences. End of story.
Posted by
Anonymous
:
10/02/2005 11:34:00 AM

Other anonymous- I keep having to point out to Colin James in my Gaynz.Com columns that he has no real evidence-based grounds for his continued claims that 'political correctness' cost Labour provincial support. Perhaps, but by the same token, Brian Tamaki and the Exclusive Brethren aren't seen as mainstream by many urban liberal New Zealanders.

His comments about 'gynocracy' do not surprise me. As for your point about age, yeah, exactly. It's male menopause. It makes testosterone go rancid.